I Knew That Having Ida Maria On The Perez Hilton Tour Would Be A Bad Idea

The fierce Norwegian rocker Ida Maria had a meltdown on stage at the woefully undersold Boston installment of Technicolor-haired Internet scourge Perez Hilton’s tour the other night. Somehow the bottom-feeding blogger himself hasn’t mentioned this yet! But other people who were there have accounts of the evening and video.

From Christine Cassis of The Daily Free Press:

Despite the fact that most, if not all of the artists have been touring their home countries –– most artists are from overseas –– for the past year, and anyone who reads any sort of music news would know some of their names, Perez continues to promote his gig as a musical experience worth the $30plus price tag, because it will expose you to a whole “new” world or music.

I’d beg to differ. And I’m sure the mere 250 people who attended the event at the House of Blues would agree, especially once co-headliner Ida Maria had a melt-down during song one-and-a-half, rendering her unable to perform the rest of her set.

The Norwegian rocker seemed less-than-impressed by the dwindling crowd as she took the stage (the three-story music venue can hold more than 2,400 people). She pouted her way through her first tune, refusing to sing the last two lines on the song, and opting, instead, to have a pow-wow with her guitarist, who pleaded with her to continue the performance under hushed mics.

As she led into her second song, the singer put down her own guitar and stood facing the audience folding her arms with an un-entertained, unenthusiastic, “I could care less” look written all over her face, before storming off mid-song leaving her band clueless. After a brief period of confusion, the stage managers reeled out a screen from which the audience could watch music videos. Already angry concert goers booed as Kanye graced the screen. Management were quick to replace his video with Janet, Madonna and of course, Taylor Swift.

Later, Maria would return from her fit back stage to apologized in broken English. …

While the concert did tend to drag at the end of the night –– Ladyhawke was seemed to be trying to make up for Maria’s too-shot performance –– three out of four isn’t bad. Overall it was a fun night, despite the small crowd, tears on stage and the fact that the host, Perez, was nowhere in sight during the show’s blunders.

As of press-time no apology and/or refund has been mentioned to make up for the co-headliner, Maria’s, performance, or lack there of.

Here’s video of the performance:

Sigh, and ugh. I hope Ida gets well soon (reports are claiming that she was drunk during the tour’s Washington, D.C. stop, although Perez kept it classy by saying that he wanted to get lit too). Talk about someone who deserves better all around, you know? (Especially when it comes to ticket sales—Perez’s “brand” can barely fill a club 15%! Yipes.) She was replaced by pop singer Kat DeLuna on last night’s New York show.

Shit, maybe I should go to this tonight if I’m going to get to see some freak-outs. They’re practically begging people to go and handing out free tickets left and right to the show in Chicago, which is at an 1,100-person venue.

Jerkwheat

I am no longer questioning my decision to skip the show at the 9:30. I love the Ida Maria record, but the thought of being that close to Perez Hilton was enough to turn me away. Sounds like I missed a lot of nothing. Disappointing to hear.

TriedandTrue

I am so sad to read this as I love the Ida Maria record as well. I got that email from Metro last night for the free tickets. Although I doubt Metro will get many people to even open the email as the subject line was “See Perez Hilton at the Metro”

drinkypuss

Ida has been touring for like, two years straight, right? She needs a break.

http://idolator.com/ Maura

@TriedandTrue: I’d open an e-mail that said “Get bubonic plague at the Metro” before I’d open that one.

Weezy F Baby

Wah fucking wah. Sometimes in a touring band you’re going to play to an empty house. How about instead of thinking about only yourself and pouting like a big baby, you fulfill the promise you made to the people that bought tickets to see you? It’s not your fans’ fault nobody showed up!

Weezy F Baby

And I always chuckle at that press shot above because it in no way resembles her whatsoever.

http://http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660228/ How do I say this…Throwdini!?!

She was pretty drunk when I saw her opening up for Glasvegas in LA, but she powered through that show just fine. Its probably because the house was pretty packed for an opening act and everyone there was really into her. As much as I agree with Weezy F Baby that she has a responsibility to put on a good show, I’ll go ahead blame Perez too.

Oh, and what’s up with the free concert ticket offer? The only time I’ve heard of this in LA was for Kevin Federline’s shows. And if it weren’t for wanting to avoid LA freeways the day before Thanksgiving, I totally would’ve gone to see that trainwreck.

http://popmusicnotes.wordpress.com rockymtranger

I really want to see Ida live, but I would never even consider it when she’s on a bill with Perez’s name. Wonder if they will be giving out tickets for the show here? The ad explicitly said that Perez would not be showing up, so if the tickets were free, I might consider it.

http://mondosalvo.tumblr.com/ brasstax

@Weezy F Baby: Weezy, that mugshot promo photo is at least 2 years old, if not older.

ObtuseIntolerant

How does she deserve better if she can’t give her all to people willing to see her? When it’s your chosen profession to play music, shouldn’t you consider touring a luxury? I’m sure plenty of people would be happy to swap spots with her and get even 250 sets of ears and eyes.

This kind of thing offends me on behalf of artists I like who are professional and enthusiastic in all kinds of live environments, and get little respect. Not naming any names. :)

Good thing I didn’t pay $30 for the NYC show. I guess, internally, I knew three times this year was enough. (That’s not true at all; I knew that I didn’t want to give Perez Hilton $30, then trek to the city to see a show when I had work the next morning.) Even when discounting the breakdown, she still sounded… well, pretty awful for her.

Fuck whoever told Ida and her band that it was a good idea to do this tour. Fuck them hard.

Lord knows I still love you, Ida.

jinkowicz

the video was Dolly Parton not Kanye-not kidding. And the crowd seemed a little zombie-not excited, not disappointed. Rather disappointing show.

Spacejam

The Sep.22 Milwaukee show is free now too and Ida Maria is off the bill also.

Kate Richardson

While I tend to agree that a touring artist should accept the reality that having the privilege/luxury of making your living by touring your music around, and really should refrain from prohibitive drunkenness and/or tantrums…

…if you’re Ida Maria and you put out a truly KILLER album that’s 1) highly entertaining, and 2) quite skillful and smart…I could kind of understand the feeling of intense disgust and misery at having to resort to the fucking Perez Hilton tour just to get a little attention in the U.S. Granted, that was a poor decision from the get go, but all I’m saying is that in a perfect world she would be doing her own mid-sized headlining tour to packed clubs, not slumming it with Perez.

And, lastly, apologies to ObtuseIntolerant, but I’d rather a drunk, imperfect, human-seeming musician to hyper-managed precocious child stars. Maybe that’s a low blow, and god knows I love the JoBros in a certain way, but Ida Maria could beat their asses, and I like that about her.

ObtuseIntolerant

@Kate Richardson: I’ll just have to agree to disagree, Kate. I LOVE kickass rocker girls and imperfection, too…but professionalism doesn’t have to be equivalent to lack of humanity, which is why I like the JoBros actually and implied them here (they may be hypermanaged and precocious, but they are plenty imperfect and unchoreographed.) Anyway, I figure, I’m not hanging out with these people, I’m paying to see them perform, and I’m just not interested in lame drama and excuses. If I was, I’d watch the VMAs and read Perez’ website.

I’m sorry for her, and I was all ready to jump on her bandwagon based on the raves I read about Ida Maria here, but this sort of thing does leave a bad taste in my mouth. It’s such a waste to act like a jerk, but more power to those who are looking for that in their live experience.

http://twitter.com/joshacagan joshservo

@ObtuseIntolerant: Were you, a JoBro fan, to have “jumped on her bandwagon,” it would have resulted in the thinnest Venn Diagram union ever. So there’s that.

Go ahead and look up what a Venn Diagram is, honey. We’ll wait.

nukleopatr

Not that it makes THAT much of a difference, but I DOUBT that the HOB in Cleveland holds 2,400, since the one in Chicago holds a max of about 1,400.
A quick google search suggests that the capacity is 1,100.

@katerichardson: Anyway, though they are my favorite example to imply, I should have been more specific and used an example of a band less known for piety & obedience I suppose, which undermined my actual point. But there ARE plenty of badasses who act like professionals. This was not a bad opportunity for and it comes off amateurish. This just reminds me of the time I thought my professor was a fraud so I decided to flunk her class.